Jet Airways was informed by the State Bank of India (SBI) late on April 16, on behalf of the consortium of Indian Lenders, that they are unable to consider its request for critical interim funding.

Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going.

Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight on April 17, 2019.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing.

This decision has been taken after a painstaking evaluation of all alternatives that were made available to the Company and after receiving guidance and advice on the same from its Board of Directors. Jet Airways has informed the DGCA, and the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Finance and other relevant government institutions, of this course of action.

Over the last several weeks and months, the company has tried every means possi-ble to seek both interim and long-term funding. Unfortunately, despite its very best efforts, the airline has been left with no other choice today but to go ahead with a temporary suspension of flight operations.

This has been a very difficult decision but without interim funding, the airline is simply unable to conduct flight operations in a manner that delivers to the very rea-sonable expectations of its guests, employees, partners and service providers.

After 25 years of sharing the Joy of Flying with Indian and international guests, Jet Airways has been forced to take this extreme measure as prolonged and sustained efforts with lenders and authorities did not yield the desired results.

Essential services needed to support guest services and the re-commencement of the flight operations will be kept onboard until further notice.

Jet Airways will now await the bid finalisation process by SBI and the consortium of Indian Lenders.

In its response to the airline, the lenders have said, “The Expressions of Interest (EOI) have been received and bid documents have been issued to the eligible recip-ients today. The bid documents inter alia has solicited plans for a quick revival of the company. The bid process will conclude on 10th May 2019 … We are actively working to try and ensure that the bid process leads to a viable solution for the company.”

Jet Airways will continue to support the bid process initiated by the lenders.

The airline will inform all guests about the temporary suspension of flight operations via text message or email to the contact details listed in their bookings.

Jet Airways sincerely and profusely apologises for the disruption to the travel plans of all its guests. The airline would like to thank them for their continued patronage, support and loyalty over the years.

Jet Airways is hopeful that it will be able to bring the Joy of Flying back to its guests as soon as possible. Over the past 25 years, Jet Airways has established itself as India’s airline of choice and the flag-bearer of warm Indian hospitality around the world. The airline has proudly fuelled India’s economic engine, enabling business travellers and tourists alike to traverse the length and breadth of India and the world. Even during the toughest of times, Jet Airways employees have worn a smile on their face and put their duty to its guests and the nation first.

Above all, the airline would like to express its sincere gratitude to all its employees and stakeholders that have stood by the Company in these trying times. We hope to bring the flying sun back into the skies.

Like this:

“Jet Airways has canceled all its international flights, raising fears that it may be close to collapse.

The airline said in a statement on Friday that it “has canceled its international operations from 12th to 15th April.”

All of Jet’s long-haul services — including to London, Paris and Amsterdam — were suspended from Thursday night, but a spokesperson initially said earlier Friday that all long-haul flights had resumed.

However, the airline later announced the cancellation of all international flights until Monday, adding that it was “working to minimize guest inconvenience.”

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Jet Airways yesterday (February 7) announced to the Bombay Stock Exchange it was returning four leased aircraft to the lessors. The exact aircraft were not specified.

The airline has been working on a reorganization to reduce its costs while maintaining its schedule.

The airline issued this short statement:

“Four aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under lease agreements. Jet Airways is actively engaged with all its aircraft lessors and regularly provides them with updates on efforts undertaken by Jet Airways to improve its liquidity. Aircraft lessors have been supportive of Jet Airways’ efforts in this regard.

Jet Airways is making all efforts to minimize disruption to its network due to the above and is proactively informing and re-accommodating its affected guests. Jet Airways also continues to provide required and periodic updates to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in this regard.“

The Board of Directors of Jet Airways met on November 12 to assess and announce the Company’s financial results for the second quarter of FY19, based on the recommendation of the Audit Committee. The Board also reviewed the progress of the Company’s turnaround strategy outlined last quarter, together with an update on the success of other parallel measures being undertaken by the management to revive the economic health of the Company.

The tough industry environment in the backdrop of a sharp rise in Brent fuel price by more than 50% over Q2 FY18, a depreciating rupee and a challenging pricing situation in an over-capacitated domestic market, continued to undermine Jet Airways’ performance for the quarter, which reported a consolidated net loss of INR 1,261 crores for the period ended 30th September 2018, in comparison to a net profit of INR 71 crores in Q2 FY18. For the period July to September 2018, the airline reported an EBITDAR of INR 239 crores versus an EBITDAR of INR 1,084 crores in Q2 FY18.

Despite the above, the airline demonstrated progress on its business and operating fundamentals, registering a 7.3% growth in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKMs) over Q2 FY18, and a 10.5% growth in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKMs), flying 7.45 million guests – up by 2.2% from Q2 FY18. In spite of currency devaluation, Jet Airways managed to maintain its non-fuel CASK for the quarter at almost the same level as last year (Q2 FY18), and in fact, excluding the foreign exchange impact, the CASK is better by 4.2% versus last year (Q2 FY18), reflecting the organisation’s efforts to reduce costs across its entire business spectrum.

Productivity and efficiency gains for the quarter yielded significant enhancements in operational statistics, improving the airline’s On-time performance to 84% (up 11 notches) than Q2 FY18. Similarly, average load factors increased by 2.5% to 84%, ancillary revenues grew by 9%, and cargo revenues increased by over 13.7% over Q2 FY18. In addition, yields from Cargo also registered an impressive YoY increase.

At the strategic level, the Company remains committed and is on track to realize most of the outcomes that were outlined as part of its turnaround strategy last quarter, including cost savings in excess of INR 2000 crores over the next two years via strategic initiatives in the areas of sub-fleet simplification, reduction of maintenance as well as selling and distribution expenses, renegotiation of contracts, together with a more productive resource deployment geared to enhance profit and revenue. In fact, the company has already realized cost saving of over INR 500 crores to date (in H1FY19).

Simultaneously, Jet Airways is exploring further opportunities to enhance revenues by undertaking several calibrated steps to improve yields in the domestic market, fine tune revenue management practices and use the advantages of connectivity over its hubs to improve volumes. At the same time, the airline is actively engaged in realising improvements in revenue in the international markets by leveraging the strengths and synergies of its network and alliance partners.

During the quarter, Jet Airways also expanded its codeshare cooperation with international partners such as Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Malaysian Airlines, and Bangkok Airways delivering incremental growth and choice for its guests. Revenues from codeshare and interline guests for Q2 FY19 rose by 30.9% even as guest numbers grew by 8.6% on a YoY basis.

Notwithstanding the above measures, Jet Airways is undertaking a series of initiatives with a view to enhance economic viability, efficiencies and productivity to ensure the longterm health of the business.

The airline has embarked on a comprehensive review and consolidation of its network involving routes and markets, as well as products and services offered. The strategy includes concentration of capacity, enhancing frequency, density and hub connectivity. The measures will include rationalisation of operations on select, uneconomic routes and the redeployment of these assets to more productive and economically efficient international as well as domestic sectors, closely aligning capacity with the demand characteristics of specific markets.

With the induction of the state-of-the-art Boeing 737 MAX progressing as per schedule, 11 of which are expected to be inducted in its fleet during this fiscal year, Jet Airways will leverage the fuel efficiency and longer range of its existing and forthcoming MAXs to replace those with higher operating costs on both domestic and international sectors. As a part of this network consolidation, the overall scale of operations (ASKMs) however, will continue at the same level as the airline currently operates.

The airline is launching 3 additional services to Singapore from Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, and in early November, commenced its operations to Manchester from Mumbai. The airline will also launch additional frequencies between Delhi – Bangkok, Mumbai – Doha, Delhi – Doha, Mumbai – Dubai and Delhi – Kathmandu during the winter schedule.

The airline continues to engage with financial stakeholders for supporting its funding requirements till it starts generating operational surplus and is actively working on the monetization of its assets and capital infusion.

Based on market dynamics, the review of the Company’s network and operations, both on domestic and international routes, will continue to be an on-going process to help deliver a more strategic, efficient, and economically viable network with a focus on profitability rather than market share.

Vinay Dube, CEO, Jet Airways said, “With our clearly defined focus on profitability, we are in the midst of turning the ship around. We remain closely engaged with all our partners, who acknowledge the challenges faced by the Indian aviation industry and have been very supportive.”

“While we navigate the challenges posed by the current industry environment, our focus and attention remains on safety and operational reliability. We are confident that we will overcome our current challenges, honor our commitments to our stakeholders, and deliver a more strategic, efficient and financially viable airline.”

Jet Airways Group Q2, FY19 highlights

Total revenue up 6.9% at INR 6,363 crores compared to INR 5,952 crores in Q2, FY18

EBITDAR of INR 239 cr in Q2 FY19 against INR 1,084 cr in Q2 FY18

Available Seat Kilometers up 7.3% at 15.28 billion over Q2, FY18

Passengers carried increased by 2.2% to 7.45m over Q2, FY18

Interline and Codeshare traffic increased by 8.6% over Q2, FY18

Revenue from codeshare and interline partners increased by 30.9% compared to Q2 FY18

Jet Airways on November 5, 2018 commenced its new nonstop service between Mumbai and Manchester, further expanding the airline’s connectivity in the United Kingdom (UK).

This new service is the first nonstop service connecting India, via its economic capital with Manchester, the third largest city in the United Kingdom.

Jet Airways is now the largest carrier between Mumbai and the UK and Manchester, the 21st international destination on the carrier’s network.

Ahead of the launch of its inaugural service from Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Jet Airways conducted a multi-faith prayer followed by a ceremonial lamp lighting ceremony to mark the occasion of its maiden Mumbai – Manchester flight.

This inaugural function was led by Mr Raj Sivakumar – Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Jet Airways; Mr. Tom Mottershead, Deputy Director for Trade and Innovation, British Deputy High Commission; dignitaries and invitees from airport (MIAL) graced the occasion. The lamp – lighting ceremony was followed by inauguration of the check- in counter marked by a symbolic ribbon cutting. The airline felicitated the first guest to check in by handing over a boarding pass and by a floral presentation.

The airline’s first flight to Manchester 9W 130, departed on schedule from Mumbai at 0230 hrs, operated by its modern wide body Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The flight arrived at Manchester’s Terminal 2 at 0755 hrs (Local time). The return flight, 9W 129 departed from Manchester at 0935 hrs (Local time) and arrived at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 at 0040 hrs.

Since announcing the new service in May this year, the airline has been working to strengthen additional connectivity choices for guests arriving in Manchester, who can now connect onwards to North America and Europe or even within the UK, via flights with Jet Airways’ partner carriers including Virgin Atlantic, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Air France and other interline partners. Jet Airways’ guests and those of certain partner carriers will also be able to enjoy mutual earn and burn of miles on each other frequent flyer programmes as per agreement between the respective airlines.

Conversely, guests flying via Mumbai will be able to access Jet Airways’ network of 46 destinations within India. Similarly, quick connections to beyond points on Jet Airways’ international network such as Bangkok, Colombo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dhaka and Kathmandu, will now be available. Some of the domestic destinations to which the new service will seamlessly connect to from Mumbai include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhuj, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Nagpur, Raipur, Rajkot, Udaipur, and Vadodara.

Jet Airways’ A330-200 aircraft with 254 seats including 18 in Première will operate on this new sector.

The new service will complement the carrier’s existing thrice daily nonstop services between Mumbai – London Heathrow, and a daily service between Delhi – London Heathrow. The launch of the new service comes one year after the airline launched 3 new international services last year on October 29, 2018, to Amsterdam, Paris and London from Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai respectively.

Boeing and Jet Airways confirmed that the Indian carrier placed an order for an additional 75 737 MAX 8 airplanes during a signing ceremony at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow. The order, valued at $8.8 billion at current list prices, was previously posted as unidentified on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries website.

This order for an additional 75 MAX airplanes helps the Indian carrier expand its network to meet surging demand in the fastest-growing aviation market in the world.

In June, the Mumbai-based carrier took delivery of its first MAX, a new and improved 737 that delivers a double-digit improvement in fuel efficiency and improved passenger comfort. These new airplanes arrive into an Indian aviation market that continues to grow at significant rates. According to industry data, domestic air traffic in India has grown about 20 percent in each of the past four years.

Jet Airways is India’s second-largest airline with a fleet of nearly 120 airplanes serving more than 60 destinations in 15 countries across Asia, Europe and North America.

The 737 MAX family achieves superior fuel efficiency and range through the latest CFM International LEAP-1B engines, Advanced Technology winglets, and other improvements. The jet also features the signature Boeing Sky Interior and large flight deck displays.